Different generations need different formats; learn from one another.

observation — attributed to Chris & Jill Drury

The Drurys have employees aged twenty to seventy. They notice the patterns. A baby boomer wants to know what is going to happen in advance, needs a set course, needs time to analyze and think. A millennial walks into a situation asking what is fun, where they should go, where they can have impact. Even audiences with similar professional roles (all technical, all pharmaceutical) have different generational needs that fragment the design. The Drurys' frame is to learn across generations rather than design for one. The discipline scales. Events that account for generational variance produce engagement; events that assume a single generational default leave half the audience unaddressed.

For event programmers, training designers, and HR teams building events for multi-generational audiences. The observation is most useful as a corrective when the design has unintentionally optimized for one generation's preferences.

generations, boomer, millennial, format-design